---
name: "mdbFontEncoding"
section: "5"
platform: "linux"
package: "m17n-docs"
version: "1.8.4-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/mdbFontEncoding"
---

# mdbFontEncoding(5)

Font Encoding

## NAME

mdbFontEncoding - Font Encoding

## DESCRIPTION

The m17n library loads information about the encoding of each font form the m17n database by the tags \<font, encoding\>. The data is loaded as a plist of this format.

```
FONT-ENCODING ::= PER-FONT *
PER-FONT ::= '(' FONT-SPEC ENCODING [ REPERTORY ] ')'
FONT-SPEC ::=
    '(' [ FOUNDRY FAMILY
          [ WEIGHT [ STYLE [ STRETCH [ ADSTYLE ]]]]]
    REGISTRY ')'
ENCODING ::= SYMBOL
```

`FONT-SPEC` is to specify properties of a font. `FOUNDRY` to `REGISTRY` are symbols corresponding to #Mfoundry to #Mregistry property of a font. See **m17nFont** for the meaning of each property.

For instance, this `FONT-SPEC`:

```
    (nil alice0 lao iso8859-1)
```

should be applied to all fonts whose family name is 'alice0 lao', and registry is 'iso8859-1'.

`ENCODING` is a symbol representing a charset. A font matching `FONT-SPEC` supports all characters of the charset, and a character code is mapped to the corresponding glyph code of the font by this charset.

`REPERTORY` is a symbol representing a charset or 'nil'. Omitting it is the same as specifying `ENCODING` as `REPERTORY`. If it is not 'nil', the charset specifies the repertory of the font, i.e, which character it supports. Otherwise, whether a specific character is supported by the font or not is asked to each font driver.

For so called Unicode fonts (registry is 'iso10646-1'), it is recommended to specify 'nil' as `REPERTORY` because such fonts usually supports only a subset of Unicode characters. \

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2001 Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA)\
 Copyright (C) 2001-2011 National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)\
 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License  \<http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html\>.